Easy Sound Design in Reason

Erik Hawkins

I’ve worked in a lot of DAW programs: Digital Performer, Cubase, Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Live, and Reason. I keep coming back to Reason for its amazing sonic palette (which has grown immensely with the release of Rack Extensions) and its inspiring interface for developing custom sounds. I’m a big believer in taking the time to design sounds that fit each production, and then recycling these sounds for future productions. Over time, I believe this helps you to develop a voice as a producer. Your productions will be recognizable not only from your arrangements and writing, but also from your personal bank of synth and sampler patches.

Reason makes developing such sounds as easy as plug and play, like simple object oriented programming. You don’t need to be a technically minded, sound designer whiz to cook up great sounding patches using just a combinator and some simple layering techniques. This is how I make a lot of my sounds that you can hear in my productions. In this video, Easy Sound Design with Reason (or, Building a Cool Electro Bass), I demonstrate how you can easily and quickly build your own custom sounds without needing to understand anything to technical.

Don’t miss a beat.

Subscribe now for updates from the world leader in music education.
We’ll send you the Take Note digest each month including the latest in music news,
video tutorials, podcasts, e-books and more.

Thank you! You will soon receive the Take Note digest, a monthly roundup of the most exciting musical techniques, trends, and tips from Berklee Online.